Our Past Mistakes
by RedWing36
Summary: For Ruby life has never been the fairy tale she always dreamed it would be. The twist and turns her path has taken lead her down a dark road she never imagined was possible, but when an opportunity arises to change everything, to fix all the mistakes, she makes sure to try and make the best of it. No matter what the cost. AU: Dark themes ahead
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any characters depicted.**

 **This is a slight AU story. Events will not fully match up with canon.**

 **Cover Art: Official** **commissioned** **art for this story done by the amazing Noxypep**

* * *

"I think I finally understand why you drank so much Qrow."

James Ironwood sat at his desk within his personal quarters. Looking around the room, he was reminded once again of the simplicity of it all. A simple room of medium size. A single bed with pale white sheets resting directly across from his desk. It almost seemed to blend in with the dull grey concrete floor and walls. A small nightstand sat next to the bed holding nothing but a single digital alarm clock with bright red lights, letting him know that it was already late into the day. Next to the night stand was a large room lamp that acted as one of two light sources. The other was the single desk lamp right next him.

His eyes began to wander the barren walls. The lack of windows reminding him that his current residence was underground. Even after two years it made him feel like a coward to live here. He knew it was his only choice, and over time it had grown on him, yet that feeling of shame never did leave him. That old military pride still shone through at times.

He let out a sigh as he swirled the glass of brown liquid around in his hand. A dull _clanging_ reverberated around the room as one of his metal fingers tapped it. His other hand reached up and scratched at the rough salt and pepper facial hair that covered his face.

Looking at his desk, his eyes rested upon the stack of mission reports, personnel complaints, and requisition request piled high on top of it all needing him to look through, and either sign off, on, or reject.

He was no stranger to paperwork, having been the leading general of one of the most advanced and powerful armies in all of Remnant's history, and the headmaster of a hunter academy at the same time the paperwork never seemed to end. he still hated having to do it. A mindless task that involved more skimming reports than fully reading them unless they were of dire importance. Sadly for him though, they rarely were.

Putting the glass to his lips, he downed the remaining contents. The liquid caused a satisfying burn as it passed down his throat.

Setting the glass on the table he reached down and grabbed a larger bottle, ready to pour himself another glass. A frown took to his face as he held the bottle up and noticed that there was a saddening lack of whiskey in the bottle. "Fucking perfect." Looking next to his desk he tossed the bottle into the trash, not really caring as he heard the sound of the bottle shattering as it landed.

Looking back to his desk he opened one of the lower drawers that was on the left side. He took out another bottle of whiskey while making a mental note to himself that he would need to restock on his stash soon.

Closing the drawer he opened up the bottle he poured the contents into the glass sitting on his desk. Setting the bottle down next to the large stack of files James picked up the glass in one hand taking a small sip as he grabbed the first report with his other hand.

 _Resistance scouting report #1: Area-Vale_

James continued to drink his whiskey as his eyes skimmed the report. Noting that nothing had changed in the area. No grimm spotted anywhere within the kingdom, and Cinder's "New Order," as the women called it, still ran the show with an iron fist.

Taking a chug from his drink as he set down the report to the side, as to not mix it with the others he had yet to go through. Picking up the next one he noticed that this report had a giant coffee stain on it, probably a result of the clutz who brought it to him.

 _Resistance scouting Report #2: Area-Vacuo_

More of the same as in Vale, no grimm activity anywhere. More reports of people who verbally opposed Cinder and her new government disappearing everyday. He felt the beginnings of a headache settle in as the Reports for Mistral and Atlas held nothing but the same information as the other two kingdoms.

Moving around the files on his desk he located the one he was actually interested in, know that at least some new information would be contained in it. Taking another sip of his drink he grabbed the report and began reading through it, paying closer attention to the report than he had the previous ones. The feeling of cold metal ran against his face as he scratched his beard.

 _Resistance scouting report #2: Area-Faunus lands outside of the kingdoms_

He quickly looked over the contents of the file. " _Initial findings show that even after five years the ruler of the Faunus lands "Adam Taurus" is still not accepting humans into his territory unless they granted permission by "Cinder Fall". Any humans caught outside of the kingdoms is taken into captivity and thrown into gruesome torture camps where they are either killed or put to work, so far we have uncovered no less than 10 different camps with at least one hundred captives each..."_

"Well great. They found another 3 camps. God this just keeps getting better!" He said to himself. Throwing the folder down in frustration, papers scattering as the folder crashed into the larger pile of paperwork.

Once again raising his drink to his lips, he noticed that he was out of whiskey. Huffing in annoyance and reaching down, he grabbed the bottle of brown liquid that currently laid on the floor and poured himself another glass. Inwardly chastising himself for having another glass of alcohol.

"Yep, I truly do see why you drank so damn much." He rubbed his temples and closed his eyes in an attempt to alleviate his headache. The cool metal of his robotic hand doing a small job in helping the pain, as he went to put the bottle back down he knocked over the single picture that decorated his desk.

It fell to the floor with a clatter as the glass surrounding the photo broke, scattering across the floor of the room as the picture fell onto the floor when the frame split.

His eyes opened as he looked at the photo that laid among the shards of glass on the ground. Slowly he reached down to pick it up, and he brought it closer to his face so he could examine it.

A frown took his face as he studied the picture. It was a simple picture, one of himself standing with Ozpin, the former leader of Beacon academy. Next to them were their respective assistants. Standing besides Ozpin was Glynda Goodwitch, they were both smiling brightly at the camera. Ozpin held his signature cane and a mug of coffee, standing in the same casual confident manner he always had. Glynda had her hands held behind her back with her riding crop in hand.

Ironwood was also smiling straight at the camera, hands behind his back in a proper military at-ease position. Behind him stood his highest ranking specialist, Winter Schnee. Her stance an exact copy of his own, but her face was twisted into an angry scowl as she was looking away from the camera at the remaining person in the picture.

Qrow stood just behind Glynda. James could understand what Winter was throwing the tall man the glare for. Qrow was not even looking at the camera, he was far too busy tilting his head back and chugging what remained of his flask. The sight probably pissed Winter off to no end.

He smiled a little at the memory of that. It was hard to believe that picture was taken at the Vytal Festival tournament over ten years ago. It was almost harder to believe that out of everyone in that picture, he was the only one left alive. That fact was one of the many things that he wished he could go back and change. A small smile came to his face as he took one final look at the picture before setting it against lamp that rested in the corner of his desk.

"You guys were lucky. You don't have to be here to see just how fucked up the world has become." With a sigh he took another swing of his whiskey. Faintly becoming aware of the buzz he was feeling.

" _How did it come to this?"_

That question was on his mind at least once a day for the last five years. It seemed like not that long ago he was leading the Atlas military, and it's academy. He had everything he worked so hard to gain through his years as a huntsmen, he was in the best position to use his skills to help people.

Then one day it all suddenly came to an end. It was a day that he truly wish could be changed, he would give anything for at least one more opportunity. The day Vale, and Atlas had come under attack from Vacuo, and Mistral without warning. He still wasn't sure exactly how Cinder was able to pull off taking over two kingdoms without being noticed. She had used the political unrest within the two kingdoms to silently take power within them, right under his and Ozpin's noses.

He had never thought something like that was in the realm of possibility. Now that he looked back on it that is probably why Cinder's attack had been so successful. Without a plan, and being caught unaware, they had been completely overwhelmed by the Maiden powered women and her combined forces of Vacuo, and Mistral hunters. Add on to that all the white fang that helped in the invasions, and there was no chance for them.

After the attack he had done his best to gather what remaining forces they had in hopes of fighting back. Sadly there was only a few thousand people left with him, most being regular soldiers, though a few were trained and skilled hunters. He did what he could by forming them into a resistance. A group that he hoped would be able to work quietly out of the public eye to topple Cinder and her "New Order."

Yet as time dragged on it had only gotten worse for them. Years worth of intel leaks and traitors led to many missions that ended in the deaths or capturing of his troops. It had severely crippled what little resistance there was before, and constantly forced them to move their base of operations, never seeming to be able to stay in place for more than year or two. Cinder always seems to be one step ahead of them. Hopefully they would be able to change all that soon.

Taking a final sip from his whiskey he set the cup back down on the cluttered desk in front of him, and let a pained groan escape his lips. He hated to admit it, but the resistance wasn't going to be around for much longer. It was only a matter of time before Cinder found out where they were, and came for them. He knew that she would personally make sure they were gone this time.

Even if they had not had any success in stopping Cinder's take over, they did make her life a living hell. Everything from sabotaging key locations and industry within the kingdoms to assassinating certain people Cinder put into power, the Resistance had been a thorn in her side for too long. He knew she would take pleasure in helping make sure every last one of them was dead, and they couldn't stop her. Not like this. They had made too many mistakes, and there was only one way to fix that.

Looking back at the picture, James let out a hardly laugh that filled the small room as he reached down to grab the whiskey bottle yet again. "Looks like we're gonna need a miracle to come out of this on top. What do you say guys? You want to throw one our way?" He asked the picture jokingly. Leaning back into his chair, he kicked his feet up onto the table, piles of folders and loose papers getting buried under his boots, and closed his eyes and just sat there for a minute. Ironwood tried to think of anything besides his current situation.

As he was about to pour himself more liquor, a knock on his door interrupted him.

"What is it?" His voice boomed as soon as the knocking stopped. It was probably just more paperwork he would have to go through.

His door opened to reveal a young soldier, probably no more than twenty five, standing in the doorway. The young man had an air of nervousness around him as James could clearly see the boy shaking slightly, as well as the sweat that lined the younger man's face even from where he was seated. Seeing as how this was the first time James had ever seen this man, he could only assume the kid was nervous about having to meet him.

"General, sir, you have a call from R&D sir. They request your immediate presence..sir." His nervous stutter over the young soldier clicked his heels together and his arm shot up to his face, hand extended straight out touching the tip of his eyebrow in a standard military salute.

James almost laughed inwardly. Even five years after they stopped being an official military his troop still insisted on calling him general, and would offer standard military greetings to him. No matter how much he asked them to stop.

Setting the bottle back down. James took a second to think before he responded. The last thing he wanted to do right now as go talk to the heads at R&D. They never had anything new for him, and it was just another waste of his time, as well as another headache to deal with. "I am in the middle of going through these very important files right now." Lifting his feet up to gesture at the pile before setting them back down. "Tell R&D I will get to them as soon as I can." He waved the soldier off, as he finished he started going back to pouring his drink.

"Sir they wanted me to tell you that they are finished with 'it' sir, and they wanted to have a meeting with you immediately."

James's hand stopped immediately as he heard what the young soldier said. Looking at the picture on his desk once again, but now with wide eyes - a smile slowly forming on his face. " _I guess sometimes asking for a miracle really can help."_

"Very well, I guess i'll be on my way." Getting up he grabbed the coat, and weapon that were sitting behind him as he began walking toward the door. As he neared the door the soldier quickly hopped out of his way, never once breaking the salute offered at his entrance. James stopped in front of the door and began to put on his coat.

"At ease soldier. What is your name?" He looked at the soldier in question as he briefly. returned the young man's salute. "Um well my name is Cyan sir." Came his reply as his stance in front of James relaxed.

"Well Cyan you are dismissed, return to your quarters, and take the rest of the day off. You have earned it." The smile that made it's way to the troops face was something he rarely saw on anyone's faces these days.

"Thank you sir, I shall." With a final salute Cyan walked out of the room and ran off down the hall.

James let out a sigh as he saw the young man disappear around a corner. A smile graced his face as he pulled the door to him quarters shut and began to walk in the direction of the communications room of their little base. "Let's see what they have for me."

* * *

 **Well that is the prologue for my story. I have been planning this story out for awhile, and I hope that you will all enjoy the journey like I will.**

 **Ill do my best to get the next chapter out as soon as I can. Being on spring break I have a surprisingly large amount of free time.**

 **In the mean time leave a review and let me know what you think. I love hearing feedback from you guys, good or bad.**

 **Till next time. :)**


	2. Prologue 2

_**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any characters depicted.**_

 _ **This is a slight AU story. Events will not fully match up with canon.**_

 _ **Cover Art: Official commissioned art for this story done by the amazing Noxypep**_

* * *

 _Crunch, Crunch_

The sound of snow being crushed underneath her feet was the only sound besides her own breathing that filled her ears.

The cold air from a strong gust of wind nipped at her skin even through her bright fur lined red cloak, her black corset jacket and black undershirt. The cold even passed through her fur lined skirt, leggings, and belt and boots, all of which were a dark red and black. She was thankful that she was always a fan of the cold. It was not very often that it was a discomfort for her.

She moved at a slow pace as she made her way through the woods. The slight orange hue that lit the sky as the sun began to rise let her see the hundreds of leafless trees that surrounded her path. She could see the very tip of the sun as it was starting to make its way over the horizon.

"As beautiful a view as ever." She whispered to herself.

She had always loved Patch in the winter. The way the snow blanketed the ground, yet never seems to pile so high as to be an annoyance, the way the trees became distinct from one another as their leaves left the branches they rested on, and the peaceful silence that normally enveloped the island this time of year.

Some of her best memories of her time spent on the island were from winter. Playing with her sister in the snow, making snowmen and snow angels, taking her dog out on walks first thing in the morning, and being able to see the sunrise from her backward as the snow continued to fall. Even her first time training with her father to become a huntress, and the first time she killed a Beowolf were all on this small little island during these cold months of the year.

The sudden sound of movement from a bush next to where she was walking pulled her from her thoughts. Grabbing her weapon from the holster located on her back, she deployed the weapon as she quickly turned toward the sound, pulling the scope of the bulky rifle up to her eye as her hood fell in the process, her hair flipping around into her face for a brief moment before settling down behind her, reaching down below her shoulder blades.

Her breath grew steady as she stared at the bush, the cold air showing her breath pattern as it settled down. Her finger hovered in front of the trigger, ready to fire a dust enhanced bullet into whatever was unlucky enough to try and attack her.

After a few seconds an orange fox slowly walked out of the bush holding a stark white rabbit in it's mouth. Blood from the dead animal's neck slowly dripping down onto the snow below it, painting part of the ground a bright crimson color.

The woman relaxed as the fox stopped and looked up at her. Tilting it's head slightly, bright green eyes staring at her as she lowered her weapon. She slowly put her weapon back in its holster and ran her hand through her hair. Pushing any strands left in her face behind her ear.

Her and the fox held eye contact for a few second before the animal took off past her. Probably taking it's kill somewhere it felt it was safe to eat.

She watch the fox retreat into the forest once again running her hand through her hair. She stopped as she saw the black ribbon that was tied around her right forearm. A flash of pain made it's way through her heart as memories of its former owner came flooding into her head. Looking up into the sky she watched the snow continued to fall.

" _I miss you so much, it's so cold without you here..."_

"You seem a little jumpy today Ruby." A familiar voice called from behind her, drawing her from her thoughts. "It isn't like a grimm is gonna pop out at you these days." She could hear the slight amount of joking that came from their voice.

Turning around she saw a tall man standing on the path behind her, his hand buried in the pockets of his stark white pants. A green jack hung around his shoulder. The ends of his tail coat sticking ever so slightly out from behind him. The wind picked up, causing his ponytail to blow in the wildly in the gust. Ruby looked into his Magenta eyes as he moved the pink strand of his black hair out of his face. A small smile formed on his face as their eyes met.

Lie Ren, her partner of the past three years stood in front of her. He had changed a bit since their days at Beacon, he had grown quite a bit, half a foot since their first day there. Being six foot two, he was a full ten inches taller than Ruby, who had only grown two in the same time span. He had continued to let his hair grow until it reached down below his tailbone, and his bangs nearly covered his eyes.

It was funny. When they were in school, she and Ren had never really interacted much outside of a few casual conversations, but ever since the attack on Beacon from Cinder five years ago, and the mission that had gone terribly wrong two years after that, the two of them became very close. As she got to know him it turned out he talked a lot more than people thought. Albeit it for certain things most of the time such as cooking, and his ideas about the world, but he even enjoyed cracking jokes from time to time. He just reserved himself in larger groups, but get him one on one, and he can talk up a storm if he was in the mood to, even if he did prefer to remain quiet. Over the years Ren has become one of the only people that she actually trusted anymore.

"The grimm may have been gone for years Ren, but it is never a bad thing to be precautions, and you know that." A small smile of her own made it's way to her face before quickly vanishing as soon as it had appeared.

"True enough," He agreed as he began to walk towards her.

Turning around she began to walk towards her destination, hoping to reach the cliff that she always visited at the end of her walks. She slowed her pace slightly to let Ren catch up. "So how long have you been following me?"

"Ever since you left the base. How long did it take you to notice that I was following you?" He said as he caught up to her. She looked over and saw him scanning the area around them as he spoke, stopping when he noticed a pair of white rabbits running through the snow, only after they ran out of his field of vision underneath a knocked down tree did he continue combing the area.

His attention was brought back to the shorter woman next to him when she spoke. "About ten minutes after I left." She flashed him another small smile. "You stepped on a tree branch right near the base. You're getting a little sloppy."

A small chuckle was his only response before she continued talking. "You know I was only going for a walk, you didn't have to follow me." she finished turning her head away from Ren, and back in the direction they were walking.

"You and I both know that isn't true Ruby. After what you did outside the Kingdoms, there is no way Ironwood is gonna let you leave the base without someone watching you." Ren's tone becoming much more serious as he spoke.

Ruby's face remained passive and unchanging as she thought about what she did almost a year ago. Her last adventure into the faunus kingdom nearly got her kicked out of the rebellion.

"It was not that bad." Should could feel Ren's eyes on her as they continued to walk, she didn't have to imagine the annoyed look he was giving her.

"You disappeared for a month, a lot of people ended up dead, and when you came back you were the most wanted person in the faunus kingdoms. Hell the bounty they have on your head only gets bigger every month." He could sigh as she simply shrugged her shoulders. He looked at her with sadness in his eyes. " _How can you just shrug off what you did?"_

"Anyway that doesn't explain why you were the one to follow me, you don't always have to be the one to keep an eye on me." she turned to look at Ren as she spoke.

"Well I am your teammate, it makes sense that I would be the one to look after you. Also it gets me out of that base. It can be cramped at times." He chuckled slightly before continuing. "Besides most other people at the base are scared of you."

Ruby couldn't help but laugh. He was not wrong, ever since she had returned from the aforementioned journey into the areas outside the kingdoms, people had been very weary of her, most people around the base kept their distance from Ruby unless they were ordered to be around her for a mission. Ren was one of the few people that she still kept in her company often.

"Fair enough, so tell me why did you come out and distract me this time? Normally you just let me wonder until I make it back to base." She stopped and turned to fully face him, leaning back against the nearest tree.

Ren pulled out his scroll and tossed it her way. Ruby caught it with ease and looked at the screen. There was was a message from Jaune pulled up.

 _Ironwood wants to see us ASAP, grab Ruby and head to the meeting room._

"What the does he need us for? Today is one of the few days off we actually get, he does know that right?" A mild amount of annoyance in her voice as she tossed Ren back his scroll. " _Looks like the cliff will have to wait till later."_

Ren simply shrugged as he caught the device. He slipped it back into his pocket before turning around and continuing to walk.

"I am sure it is something important, now come on let's not keep them waiting too long. You know Weiss will get annoyed if we take too long." Turning around his face fell as he noticed the smirk on Ruby's face.

Ruby pointed in the opposite direction before walking off. "Come on, this direction has a much better view."

Ren could only shake his head as he began to walk after her. "I shouldn't have said anything."

* * *

Weiss woke up to the sound of pounding on her door. Glancing over at the clock, she saw that it was only eight in the morning, a good hour before she normally woke up on her days off. slowly sitting up in bed, she rubbed her eyes with her forearm. Turning to her side, she flicked on the lamp that was located on the nightstand next to her bed, bathing the room with light. "Come in." She yawned out her response to the loud knocking.

Her door opened, and a tall, well muscled man with shaggy, blond hair and a beard wearing nothing but grey sweat pants walked into her room. His well toned body became ever clearer as he reached his hands above his head to stretch, doing so let her view the numerous scars that ran along his chest. His arms fell as he began rubbing his closed eyes, trying to fight off the urge to fall asleep.

"Jaune, what the hell are you doing waking me up this early on our day off?" the annoyance of her tone almost lost by the drowsiness that accompanied it.

"Ironwood needs us asap. He sent someone to get us. I already sent Ren a message to get Ruby and meet us in the briefing room." he replied without even opening his eyes. His voice letting on how tired he was. "Get ready to go, I'll start making something to eat." he yawned as he slowly turned around and shuffled out of her room, shutting the door behind him.

Weiss stretched her arms above her head and let out a heavy yawn before throwing her blankets off, and getting out of her bed. She dragged her feet towards the bathroom located at far side of her small room. Opening the door to she turned on the light and walked over to the sink. Turning on the water she splashed some water on her face, the cold quickly waking her up. Grabbing the hand towel next her, she wiped her face dry.

Putting the towel back in its place she turned her attention to the mirror above the sink. Her appearance had not changed all that much over the years. She still wore her hair in the same style as she had back then. Sadly since she was seventeen she had not grown much physically. She had only grown a whopping two inches since then, and she didn't improve in other aspects of her anatomy either, much to her disappointment " _Twenty seven years old, and you still have the chest of a teenager, why did Winter get all the good genes it seems?_ "

Looking at herself her eyes quickly came to the two scars that decorated the left side of her face. The long one that ran down her eye had been with her for almost her whole life it seemed, even though she only got it during her early teenage years. The horizontal scar that bisected the original just below her eyes was relatively fresh in comparison. Having only been around for five years, it remained a grim reminder of the attacks on Beacon. One that she would always have to wear.

Bringing up her right hand, she touched the second scar. The third scar she received from the attacks coming into view. The metallic right hand was cold as it brushed her silvered flesh, tracing the patterns. Pulling her hand back she stared at it for a few seconds curling and uncurling the hand. After five years she had become used to the prosthetic, yet every now and then she would catch herself staring at it. Most of the time she had to catch herself from thinking back to the events of that day. She hated when her memory wandered there, she had lost so much more than just her hand that day. Those were memories she would rather forget.

She turned on the shower before walking out of the bathroom towards the closet located next to her bathroom. Wanting to get her outfit ready for the day while the shower heated up. She grabbed her clothes and laid them out on the bed so they would be ready for her once she finished her shower.

She took off her nightgown, so that she now stood naked in the middle of her room, and went back into the bathroom where she and quickly took her shower. As she came out of the bathroom she began putting her hair into it's normal ponytail, looking around her room briefly as she did. The room was almost barren except for the bed and night stand that laid against the far wall of the room. Next to that was a simple dresser with a full length mirror next to it. Placed in the sides of the glass were a few pictures. Next to the mirror was her weapon leaning against the wall. The pale yellow light from the lamp cast a dim glow along the grey walls of the room, the dust old glass of the mirror barley reflecting the light after having gone unpolished for so long.

She quickly got dressed and walked over to the mirror. Her outfit had changed over the years. Gone was the combat skirt, now replaced with a white belt that held up long white pants, which was partly covered by her thigh high grey boots. She wore a red button up blouse, that was covered by a long white tail coat.

Looking at herself she couldn't help but laugh. During her younger years she always used to think that her sister dressed too formally; now she dressed almost exactly the same. It was funny how things changed.

As she was looking at herself her vision fell on the pictures that occupied a space on the mirror. There were three of them in total, two were on the left side of the mirror one just above the other, and the final picture was sitting opposite of the other two.

The lone picture was of her old team during their first year at beacon. The school was in the background the team was standing in front of the historical statue at the front of the school. Weiss had an annoyed look on her face as her team leader was draped over both her sister, and herself. Pulling both of them into a hug. Ruby and Yang both had wide grins on their face while Yang was flashing the peace sign at the camera. Blake was standing off to the side slightly, looking at the rest of her team with a sly smirk on her face as she looked on at the antics of her new friends. " _That seems like it was a lifetime ago now."_

The next picture was another one of her team. It was in the same location as the previous one, only this picture was taken at the start of their third year at Beacon. The girls were all standing next to each other grinning at the camera. The picture was much more tame than the last one. Blake and Ruby were standing next to each other, and just to the side of them was Weiss and Yang, who was still flashing the peace sign. The team had become much more professional than they had two years prior for the most part. " _Some things never did change though."_

The last picture was a single picture of Yang and herself, taken the day they graduated from Beacon. They were sitting together on a cliff that overlooked the forest just outside of Beacon academy. Their backs were facing the camera, and Weiss's head was leaning against Yang shoulder. Yang had her arm around Weiss's and was pulling her closer as they sat and watched the sunset together.

Weiss picked up the picture and smiled, flipping over the picture, she read the writing on the back.

 _Glad you are happy with my sister, be sure to take care of her._

 _P.S. You guys are really bad at hiding the fact that you are dating._

 _-Ruby_

Her smile fell into a slight frown as she finished reading the back. " _If only everything was as good as it was back then, I miss those days,"_ She flipped the picture back over and stared at the blond mane that was Yang's hair. " _And I miss you the most."_

"Weiss breakfast is ready." Jaune's voice broke her train of thought.

Looking back at the picture her small smile returned to her face. " _I'll see you again, maybe not soon, but one day."_

"Alright, thank you Jaune." She placed the picture back in its place on the glass before she grabbed her weapon and fastened it into the holster on her hip. Strutting over to the lamp, she turned it off and walked out of the room. Ready to see what Ironwood needed.

* * *

 **Well there is the next chapter. We have four new characters introduced. I know it is a lot of exposition, but I am gonna try and make next chapter not so much that, so I guess this is kind of prologue 2.0.**

 **I am sorry this took me so long, but a combination of writer's block and finals fucking killed my productivity with this. Expect more consistent updates during the summer.**

 **Well let me know what you guys think of this chapter by leaving a review, I really do enjoy reading them, and I try to respond to most of them in PM's.**

 **Until next time**

 **~Redwing~**


	3. Prologue 3

_**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any characters depicted.**_

 _ **This is a slight AU story. Events will not fully match up with canon.**_

 _ **Cover Art: Official commissioned art for this story done by the amazing Noxypep**_

* * *

Ruby pulled up her hood as she and Ren approached a large opening to a cave that was carved into the side of a jagged cliff.

She had always found it strange that the resistance had chosen to make their newest base on Patch. Ever since they had been driven out of their previous base to avoid Cinder's forces, she was sure they would try and find an area outside of the kingdoms to settle, but Ironwood had chosen here of all places to make a base. Surprisingly it had worked.

It seemed like hiding in the first place Cinder would have looked for them was just dumb enough that she didn't think they would actually do it. There had been few patrols to come over the island in the first months that they were there, and now one came on the same date bimonthly, making them easy to avoid.

They passed through the opening and into a small path tightly packed with rocks that created a small narrow walking lane leading to a larger open area. The only thing that they could see was an old wooden door along one side of the flat rocky cave wall. Old rotted signs hung on the door warning of a closed mine, and to keep out due to the danger of falling rocks from a cave in.

Ignoring the signs, Ren opened the door and held it as Ruby walked in. "What a gentleman." She teased placing her hand over her heart as she spoke. Ren rolled his eyes before following her inside making sure to shut the door behind him.

Inside was a narrow corridor created by the walls of the cave, the light from outside was blocked by the door so they were standing in complete darkness. Feeling around next to him, Ren found one of the many lamps that hung from a rotten wooden post built into the wall. He quickly lit the lamp illuminating the area around them. The now visible walls making them suddenly feel cramped in the small space.

"Come on let's get going, the sooner we get there the sooner we get this over with." Ruby said as she grabbed the lantern from Ren's hand and continued further into the cave.

The pair quickly navigated the many twist and turns of the cave, after about ten minutes they came across a dented and worn metal door, a single slit in the door rested at about eye level. A light hung above the door, illuminating black marks and scratches that looked like they had been created by grimm long before they ever found this place.

As they approached the door Ruby blew out the flame of the lantern and hung it on a similar post that had been near the entrance of the cave. She sauntered to the door she pounded on the door three times before she took a step back and waited.

After a few seconds, a sound came from behind the door as the metal slit was pulled back and a pair of dull blue eyes fell upon the two. "Password."

Ruby raised an eyebrow at the man behind the door. "Really? If we were one Cinder's goons we would have already blasted the fucking door down, and killed you all."

The man behind the door rolled his eyes at her response "Look I am just doing my job to make sure everyone is safe, now can you please give me the password so I can let you in Ms. Rose."

Ruby was about to retort when Ren spoke up from behind her. "O-G-Q-I-W"

"Thank you." The man shut the slider and the sound of a large latch could be heard. After a few seconds the door began to open.

Ruby shot Ren a dirty look as they began to walk inside. "Come on Ren I was trying to have a little fun." As they walked inside the base, Ruby met the cold stare of the soldier who was manning door. He quickly turned away from her as soon as she shot a glare of her own back at him.

"It was just faster to say the password, besides you delayed us getting here enough by taking us three miles in the opposite direction." He said as they walked through the small receiving room of the base. The tiny room was bare except for a small table that was littered with playing cards sitting off to the far left wall. The white fluorescent lights shone against the unpolished metal wall that surrounded them.

In front of them stood two more guards in front of an old steel elevator that led down into the heart of the base. One of the guards opened the gate to the elevator, and took a step back as both of them got on board. "Come on lighten up a little." She jabbed him with her elbow as she took her spot next to him before the guard shut the gate.

"Ironwood is waiting for you in his office. I know you don't need directions there." The guard slammed the button to send the elevator down below and turned his back as they started their descent, the elevator shaking loudly as it was lowered.

"Ruby I don't want to be here anymore than you do, but the sooner we get to Ironwood's office the sooner we can leave." Ren raised his voice over the sound of the elevator. Pulling out his scroll, he quickly sent Jaune a message that they were almost to the meeting.

"Fine, you have a point, I just wanna get this stupid meeting over with. It probably is just him asking us to go on another mission anyway." Ruby watched the walls outside the gate as the elevator slowly moved towards their destination. Her attention did not waver as she spoke.

After a minute the elevator finally came to a stop. The gate opened up to a grey hallway that seemed to go on forever as it branched off into other hallways that ran perpendicular to it. Doors of varying sizes lined the walls all clearly labeled as to what they stored behind them. The white fluorescent lights like above shimmered off the silvery polished metal of the walls. A people were commuting through the hall either carrying things, relaxing as they walked around, or just trying to get back to their barracks.

Ruby was always a little surprised when she came into the base, in the little time that they have been here they had turned what started as an abandoned mine into an actual working base of operations.

Ruby and Ren stopped of the elevator, Ren pausing briefly to hit the button to send the elevator back up. Ruby was not even able to take two steps forward before a resistance fighter walked directly into her. She fell backwards and landed on her ass, her hood falling in the process, she ignored Ren's helping hand and quickly stood up, dusting her outfit off with her hands as she stood back up.

"Hey watch where you are going next time bitch." Ruby raised her eyebrow as she looked up at the at the resistance member who stood in front of her. His standard uniform and helmet made him indistinguishable from the mass of others in the hall.

"You're the asshole who wasn't looking where he was going, don't be a dick and try and blame me." She threw back at him. The calm cold tone she was using only seemed to make the man more angry.

"Look here, if you get in my way again girl you're gonna have a bad time." The man was trying to sound threatening, but it had little effect on Ruby as she simply cast a sideways glance to Ren who was shaking his head at the scene in front of him.

"Oh, I doubt that." The man was about to continue his tirade when another soldier came running up from behind him. He quickly clasped his hand over her aggressor's mouth and began to drag him away from Ruby.

"I'm terribly sorry, , he is new and doesn't exactly know know who he is talking to, please continue on your way." The fear in his voice was rather evident from the nervous laugh at the end of his explanation.

"Whatever." She motioned for Ren to continue, and they began walking down the hall towards where Ironwood's office was. As she they departed she heard the conversation the two were having behind her.

"Don't ever do something that fucking stupid again, unless you want that girl putting you in the damn infirmary for a few weeks." failing at his attempt to whisper.

The rest of them walked to Ironwood's office was silent between Ruby, and Ren. As they approached the door to their destination Ruby was able to make out Weiss, and Jaune leaning against the dull grey metal wall next to the office.

Jaune looked like he had came from straight out of bed to get here, his hair was a mess like he hadn't bothered to brush it, and he wasn't even fully dressed in his normal attire. All he had on were his shoes, a simple pair of jeans with a black belt around his waist, and a tight sleeveless black shirt that showed off his muscles. He was talking to Weiss about something when he turned, noticed both of them, and gestured to Weiss to look.

When Weiss turned her back, Ruby could immediately tell that the woman was not happy. The glare she was sending her way was one Ruby was all too familiar with. She had to stop herself from cracking a small smile at the former heiress' face as she approached.

Jaune was the first to speak up as they approached. "Morning Ruby, morning Ren." A smile plastered on his face as he spoke to them. He approached Ren and gave the man a hug.

He turned to Ruby and offered a hug to the smaller woman. She simply offered him a smile back and a nod of her head. Jaune dropped his arms as he realised he was not going to get a hug out of Ruby.

"Where the hell have you two been? Jaune and I have been here for an hour waiting for you." Ruby looked at Weiss who was standing with her hands on her hips, her lips pulled into a scowl as she stared at the red clad girl.

Ruby scoffed at her old partner as she walked past her and towards the office door. "We took the scenic route." Ruby quickly pulled open the door and simply walked into the office.

Ren and Jaune both watched as Weiss simply stood there for a few seconds before she stomped her foot on the ground in anger. "That girl is seriously pissing me off already!" The sound was muffled by her clenched teeth.

She forcefully opened the door to the former general's office as she strode in after the other woman slamming it behind her.

Jaune sighed as he scratched his beard. "It is just gonna be one of those mornings with them isnt it?" He asked looking to his friend. Ren nodded as he walked towards the door.

"Come on Jaune, let's make sure they don't get into another fight." Walking to the office, Ren left Jaune alone in the hall by himself before he too made his way over to the door and into the office.

' _Well at least Ruby is actually speaking to her today.'_

As Jaune walked into the room he saw that the general was sitting at his desk, looking through papers of some sort. Ruby had sat herself down in a chair right across from Ironwood's desk, her feet propped up on his desk as she relaxed into the chair. Weiss was standing next to the general's desk, the glare she had been giving Ruby still on her face. Ren had taken a place leaning on a wall next to Ruby, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes closed as he waited for the meeting to start.

Jaune quietly took a seat in a chair next to Ruby, crossing his legs as he got comfortable. Not soon after he did, Ironwood broke the silence that had fallen over the room.

"Good, you are all finally here." His voice boomed as he set the papers back down on his desk, and went to grab a glass of brown liquid that had been sitting next to him. His speech slightly slurred.

"Well we would have gotten here _sooner_ had it not been for someone stalling." Weiss spat out as she continued to stare at Ruby who simply rolled her eyes at the comment.

"Ironwood let's just get to the point, what is so important that you called us all here on our day off?" She took her feet off the desk as she spoke and sat up to look the general in the eye. " 'Cause it if isn't something important, I am just going to go."

Ironwood simple held his hand up, motioning for her to stop. "I can assure you that this is important, so if you would all listen to me I can get you out of here and back to your break from work." As he spoke all eyes in the room turned to him.

"Now as you may know the resistance we have built ourselves is not exactly in the best spot." He paused as he took the last sips of his drink, sighing as the burning liquid passed down his throat, "We are losing more and more men with ever mission, and recruitment has slowed drastically, our resources and money are starting to go down as our backers from the outside are pulling support from us…" He rubbed the side of his face as he composed himself, thinking about what to say next. "I am gonna be honest with you four, there is not much time for us left. Pretty soon Cinder is gonna be able to just do away with us, and there is almost nothing we can do about it."

Ruby scoffed at his statement. "Well we might as well try and take out as many of her forces as we can before we go down, you're fucking crazy if you think I'm just gonna give up at this point." Ren and Jaune nodded in agreement.

"At this point we might as well try and go all out on her forces and try to take her out, if we are gonna die, I would rather it be trying to take her out. I don't wanna just sit by and accept defeat." Jaune said as he sat up in his chair. He knew that things were dire, but if what Ironwood was saying was true he was not just gonna let it happen.

"I agree, the only other solution to our problems at this point would be making it to where they weren't there in the first place." Ren chimed in from behind.

"Well sadly that isn't a realistic option Ren." Weiss replayed dejectedly.

"That isn't exactly true." Everyone paused and turned to look at Ironwood.

"What do you mean? There is no way that we can just make it to where Cinder isn't in power Ironwood, don't tell me you are going crazy in your old age." Ruby replied "Our only option is to go at her with everything we have, and just hope we can take her down along with us, which to be honest I am perfectly fine with."

Ironwood looked at the young woman before him, his mind wandering back to when he first met her, and she was a small, happy bundle of energy. ' _You have changed so much from when you were a girl, this conflict has affected you more than anyone else, and it has lead you down a terrible path. Hopefully what I tell you can start you done the road to fix that.'_

He gave an exaggerated sigh to make sure he had everyone's attention before replied. "We live in a world of many unexplained and fascinating things. Everything from silver eyed warriors with the power to stop evil in it's tracks..." He gestured to Ruby "To 'maidens' that wield unimaginable powers, without the aid of dust or a semblance," He gestured to Jaune. "But we also live in a world of science. A place where we can create and explain things with technology and reasoning."

He reached into the pile of papers on his desk as he grabbed a particular file that he had acquired just this morning. "Before Cinder came to power, and attacked our kingdoms five years ago, Atlas was the top scientific and military researcher in all of Remnant. We used the resources we had to try and create many things, some of these came to fruition like putting aura into a synthetic person..."

Ruby's fist clenched as the memories of her old friend Penny flashed through her mind. She took a deep breath to calm herself, his fist uncurling as she counted down in her head.

"Some never made it out of the idea phase, but some were still being researched at the time of Cinder's attacks. Crazy ideas that you would only think about as fictional. Cloning, creation of new dust elements, space travel, and finally this." He slapped the folder down on the desk in front of Weiss who quickly picked it up and looked at it.

The light tan folder had the words ' _Project Tempas"_ labeled in the middle of the folder. She quickly opened the folder and quickly read over it's contents.

Her eyes widened as she read more and more of the folder, she looked at the former general as she finished. "You can't be serious, you had people researching this?"

"Yes."

"Are you telling me that they actually were able to…" Ironwood looked Weiss directly in the eyes and nodded. His unwavering face letting her know that no part of this was a joke.

"What the hell are you two talking about?" Ruby asked confusion written on her face as she looked between Ironwood and a bewildered Weiss.

"Tell me Ruby, what would you give to be able to go back and fix our past mistakes?"

* * *

 **Alright everyone here is the newest chapter, I think it came out a little worse than I was expecting, but it was pretty hard 'cause I was focusing on the chapter out of this and this one was just to kind of get it there. I apologize if this at all caused a drop in the quality.**

 **Anyway the prologues continue and will until we get to the main plot. This is planned to be a long story so I am sure no one will have an issue. I doubt there more than 10 of them, but we will see.**

 **I hope you all enjoyed it and please remember to leave a review and let me know what you think. The more feedback I get the more motive I have to keep writing. Thank you all and I can't wait till you get to see what is happening next.**

 **~Redwing~**


	4. Prologue 4

_**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any characters depicted.**_

 _ **This is a slight AU story. Events will not fully match up with canon.**_

 _ **Cover Art: Official commissioned art for this story done by the amazing Noxypep**_

* * *

Ruby's eyes wandered to the file in Weiss's hands after Ironwood's question. Ruby narrowed her eyes skeptically at the general. "What exactly are you implying?"

Ironwood held his hands out toward Weiss, motioning for the light brown folder she was currently combing through. Clearing his throat to get the woman's attention after he didn't receive the documents for several seconds.

Weiss quickly closed the folder and handed it to the general, muttering apologies as he extended the folder to Ruby. "Simply put Ruby, time travel." he motioned for her to take the papers from his hands. "I know it sounds hard to believe, but take a look for yourself."

Ruby eyed the folder curiously, she grabbed it quickly and opened it, her eyes quickly scanning over the pages of the document, still making sure to accurately read every word.

 _...As of the past few months tests have shown that we currently have a working prototype that can send people back in time, with certain restrictions. As of now the project is still in early alpha stages and is not fully complete, but given a month, two at the most we should be able to fully send someone back in time…_

Ruby read the report a good two or three times, going over all the words, looking at the photos contained within the file that showed pictures of a large metal pod-like machine with many scientist working on it from many different angles. Her mind was running through all the options this new information opened up. This was almost too good to be true.

Once she was done she looked at Ironwood sitting idly in his desk, his hands laced together as he looked at her waiting for her response no doubt.

"You're serious about this," A simple nod of his head was her only answer.

She turned around as she felt a tap of her shoulder. Looking behind her she noticed Ren reaching out for the file contained in her hands. "May I?" he gestured. She handed Ren the documents, who walked over to Jaune as they both began looking at the contents.

"Have you even gone and seen a test of this for yourself?" She turned back toward the General as she spoke.

"No, all I have to go off of are these documents. I plan on leaving soon to head to the R&D facility in Atlas to do just that. Thought I want to know right now, that if this is real and everything works out would you four be opposed to going back and trying your best to fix everything?"

"I am not gonna lie to you Ironwood this just seems like a bunch of made up garbage, and something that is too far outside of the realm of possibility." Ruby turned her attention to Jaune as he spoke up from behind her.

Ren looked up from the file as well, "Yes you will have to forgive us if we don't believe this all from just these files. Personally I would like to see this device in person before I believe any of this." Jaune nodded in agreement next to him.

Ironwood leaned back in his chair, "I know that it is hard to believe, which is why I want all of you to come to the research lab in Atlas along with me, so that you may see for yourself how this thing work." He slowly began looking through a pile of similar brown folders, stopping once he found a particular one near the middle of the pile.

He set the folder in front of him before gesturing to Ruby. "So what do you say? Will you and your friends be joining me in Atlas."

Ruby was staring off into space, a million thoughts flying through her head at once.

' _Is this real?'_

Grabbing the file back from Jaune she began once again to pout over the contents, trying to wrap her head around how this was all possible.

 _...Research has shown that once unlocked within a person, aura leaves a unique 'trail' throughout their lives. We have found a way to lock onto this trail and send person back using their aura as an 'anchor' so to speak. We are still working out the issues, but preliminary test have shown promise._

' _If it is, that means I could see everyone again.'_

Her eyes wandered to the black ribbon that was tied around her arm, a smile worked its way onto her face. Her bright side showing itself for once, something that didn't go unnoticed by other occupants of the room.

 _I could see her again._

 _I could taste the soft brush of her lips, hear the beautiful sound of her purring, feel the warmth of her touch._

"-by, RUBY!" The yelling shook her out of her thoughts. She looked at Weiss who was waving a hand in her face. "The general was talking to you."

Ruby blinked a couple time, gathering her thoughts before she turned to look at the general. "What was that?" The general pinched the bridge of his nose, annoyed at her lack of attention. "Are you going to come to Atlas and see all of this for yourself?" The general sat up and locked eyes with Ruby. "Or are you going to just try charging head long into a fight and get yourself killed?"

Ruby pondered the question. This was crazy, absolutely _crazy_ to her. Up until a few minutes ago she was ready to just go all out in an attack on Cinder and try to take as many people with her as she could, now another option had presented itself before her. As far fetched as it may seem, she couldn't help but wanting to give it a chance. Even as skeptical of the whole thing as she was. The memories of everyone she had lost flooding back to her mind.

For the first time in years, Ruby felt a spark ignite within her chest, relighting a sense of hope that had long been dormant. The feeling grew the more she thought about the possibilities that could be discovered. It was small, and she had to resist letting the feeling overwhelm her, as she still had too many questions, but it was there.

She looked over her shoulder at Ren and Jaune with a questioning look on her face.

Both men looked at each other and nodded. "If you are up for this crazy idea then I'll be right behind you." Ren walked up and put his hands on Ruby's shoulder as he spoke.

"Might as well give this a shot, not much else we can really do." Jaune shrugged as he walked up behind Ren.

Ruby did her best to stop the smile she felt from reaching her face. She turned to face Weiss. Icy blue eyes met dark storm cloud silver as the two girls glared at each other. Neither said a word, but Ruby could tell just from the determined look of Weiss's eyes that she was putting as much faith into this plan as she was.

"Just tell us where to go and we will be there." Ruby loved this small determination, it was something she hadn't felt in nearly a year. "This seems far fetched, but if there is a chance to save everyone we will go for it."

"Well that is great to hear, I will be heading out in about a week's time as I have a few things to take care of here before then." Ironwood picked up the folder currently resting in front of him and handed it to Weiss. "Now there is one more thing I would like to discuss with the four of you before you go."

"And that would be…" Weiss questioned as she grabbed the file from Ironwood. Quickly opening it up and glancing at the papers that were clipped inside.

"I have a mission that I would like you to go on, and seeing as how Ruby has the most experience with the mission subject, I will be putting her in charge. " Reaching down Ironwood grabbed a bottle of a dark brown liquid and began to fill his glass with it. Quickly resealing the bottle once be poured himself a substantial amount of whiskey.

He pointed a metal finger in Ruby's direction. "Do not make me regret that decision, I am giving you another chance here, don't blow it."

Ruby sighed in annoyance, quickly shaking her head. _I knew there was going to be something about this. I do not want to go on another fucking mission this soon, it has been less than three days since the last one. "_ Come on Ironwood this is stupid."

"Now I know you don't want to hear about this, as you just got back from a mission not long ago, and today is one of your few days off but…"

"We are not gonna take it." Weiss closed the folder and tossed it back onto the general's desk.

The general began asking Weiss about why she didn't want the mission, but Ruby couldn't hear them, she had drowned out their conversation, her eyes narrowed on Weiss.

 _Something about this isn't right._

Weiss was acting weird, she was never one to turn down a mission, even if it was given to her when she was supposed to be taking time off, hell Ruby and her had gotten into plenty of fights over the subject whenever their two groups were put together for a mission.

"Let me see the file." Ruby held out her hand toward the general, who gave her curious look. "You said I was to lead the mission right? Therefore I should have a say on if we will be taking it or not."

"There is no need, it is just a recon mission to check out a potential White Fang work camp on the outskirts of Vale, something lower ranking resistance members are perfectly capable of handling." Weiss rattled off as she grabbed the folder once again, making sure it was well out of Ruby's grasp.

"Hand me the file Ice Queen." Ruby growled. Her anger slowly starting to rise as she once again locked eyes with the former heiress.

Weiss opened her mouth to protest but was quickly silenced by the general. "Schnee, give her the mission details." Rubbing his temples the general took a gulp of his drink.

Weiss reluctantly handed the folder to the waiting brunette, a sigh escaped her lips as she did.

Ruby snatched the folder and quickly looked over its contents.

 _...Sighting of a previously unknown White Fang camp, could be a labor camp, could just be a bunch of faunus living outdoors, or trying to establish a new base location in the area. Send troops to verify..._

The report continued on to a detailed description of the location. Providing both common landmarks of the area, as well as precise coordinates. Standard stuff that almost made Ruby agree with Weiss to pass off the mission. _Maybe I was reading her wrong._

Then she came to one of the footnotes of the document. _Possible sighting of Adam Taurus._

Ruby stopped reading the file immediately. "We are going." She placed the folder back onto Ironwoods desk and get out of her chair, spinning on her heels she began walking toward the door. "Ren, Jaune, Weiss have your things packed immediately, we leave tomorrow."

As Ruby was reaching for the door a hand quickly grabbed her wrist, halting her progress. Turning around she meet Weiss' eyes, "Let go Weiss." she growled, her hand clenching into a fist.

"Now hold on Ruby you can't just accept this mission, there is no point to it, and it isn't worth it. You are just rushing into this for no good reason."

Ruby quickly argued back. "There is a reason, this is to help keep people out of danger, as well as putting a stop to Cinders forces in the White Fang. Is that not our job?"

Weiss narrowed her eyes at the brunette. "You and I both know that is a load of crap, you almost never want to go on these missions because they have little to no fighting involved, no matter how much they might help people. Hell you were probably complaining about the possibility of getting another mission before we even came in here."

Ruby sighed, annoyed at how easy it was for Weiss to read her. ' _I guess that goes both ways, she can read me just as well as I can read her, after so many years this shouldn't be surprising.'_

"You and I both know the only reason you are so damn interested in this mission is because of Adam." Weiss let go of Ruby's wrist and took a step in front of the door.

It was quickly getting on Ruby's nerves how easily she was being read even after trying to hide her intentions. She took a deep breath doing her best to keep herself calm.

"Ruby, she is right, it doesn't even say he is anywhere near the location anymore, just that the single scout though he saw someone who they think is Adam. This is not something that is worth our time." Jaune pitched in.

"We are going." She kept her voice low but serious, "That is final."

"That isn't something you can decide for…"

"She is gonna go regardless." Ruby turned to look at Ren who had interrupted Weiss in the middle of her rant. His face was currently buried in the mission file. He looked up and turned his attention to Weiss.

"Weather we go or not doesn't matter to her, and you should know that. She is going go no matter what." Closing the file he handed it back to Ironwood who tucked it away back into the large pile of folders on his desk. "We might as well make this official and go with her to make sure nothing goes wrong, and that no one gets hurt."

 _You know me too well Ren._

Ruby couldn't help but smirk at the annoyed look on Weiss's face. She knew what Ren said was true, and she hated it.

"You do make a good point." Jaune sighed

"Then it is settled, move princess" Ruby pushed past Weiss with her shoulder as she opened the door to leave.

"Blake would be so disappointed in you."

Ruby's hand stopped on the doorknob, she felt a rage slowly building inside her chest, her grip on the door handle tightened to the point that she could hear the metal handle start the bend slightly from the pressure. "What was that?" The question was dripping with venom

"Constantly going after this stupid quest for revenge, all you want to do is kill that man, and it has only hurt other people, as well as yourself." Weiss threw her hands in the air as she spoke. "Your drive to kill him has turned you into a monster so similar to him that Blake would be disgu…"

Ruby felt her anger snap, she punched Weiss in the gut faster than the other woman could blink. The force of the blow sending all the air out of Weiss' lungs.

Pulling her fist back she quickly delivered a punch to Weiss' face before she had a chance to recover, sending the woman into the wall behind her.

Ruby stalked up to a coughing Weiss, who was trying to catch her breath, her hand covering her face and wiping away the blood that was slowly dripping out of her nose. Ruby wrapped her hand around her throat and lifted Weiss off the ground, pushing her against the wall.

"Don't you patronize me, Princess. You have no right to talk about her or how she would feel," Ruby's grip on Weiss' throat tightened as she talked. Weiss began to claw at Ruby's hands, trying to get air into her lungs. "Especially since you are part of the reason she died." her last words dripping with malice. Ruby's eyes had seemed to turn a dark grey color. The anger they held was enough to send a shiver of fear up Weiss' spine.

After a few moments Weiss could see black at the edges of her vision as her brain was starting to lose consciousness at the lack of air, she tried to think of a way out of this.

She tried to summon a glyph below Ruby's feet to push her off, only for Ruby to squeeze even tighter on her throat, the pain breaking her concentration.

"Ahh ahh, none of that now." Ruby teased, a sadistic smile making it's way to her face.

"Enough!" Ruby's grip released as soon as the words left Ironwood's mouth, Weiss fell to the ground, gasping for air as her vision slowly started to come back.

Ruby looked back and noticed Jaune, obviously ready to step in and stop the altercation that had lasted only a few seconds. Jaune was looking back and forth between her and Weiss shaking his head in disappointment as the glow around his eyes died down.

Ironwood was now standing behind his desk, both arms planted firmly on the metal surface, his chair laid on its side along the floor. "The constant bickering you two exhibit is more than enough to deal with, if you want this to come to physical blows we have a sparing area for that, but it will not happen in my office, am I understood?"

'Tsk' Ruby turned away from the general and began making her exit of the room, not even bothering to check on Weiss. "Whatever," She paused in the door frame and looked back at Jaune who was now kneeling down next to Weiss, making sure she was ok. "Make sure you guys have everything prepared, we are leaving first thing in the morning."

Ruby left the room, threw her hood back up and walked back toward the elevator. Doing her best to take deep even breaths in order to calm herself down. Throwing open the cage to the elevator that brought her down she quickly hit the button to ascend back to the top. _I need to go visit them._

Ironwood sighed as he sat back down in his chair. ' _These kids are gonna make me drink myself into an early grave.'_

Weiss was still against the wall to his left, coughing up a lung it seemed. Jaune was helping her up, trying to get her to take steady breaths to get the air back in her lungs. Her nose was still dripping blood at a consistent pace, possibly signifying a broken nose.

"Jaune," the man's attention turned to the general as his name was called, a confused look on his face. "Take her to the infirmary, her aura should have absorbed most of the damage, but it is never bad to make sure she isn't hurt."

The man nodded as he slung one of Weiss' arms around his shoulder and helped walk her out of the room.

As they were exiting, Ironwood could hear Jaune talking to Weiss.

"I can't believe you were dumb enough to pull the Blake card like that Weiss, you are supposed the be the smart one."

Ironwood looked at the empty glass of alcohol in front of him, resisting the urge to pour more. ' _I've already had too much to drink this morning, there is not enough alcohol in the world to deal with these people anyway.'_

Looking over he spotted Ren leaning against the other wall of his office, staring at the open metal door.

"Ren," The general called with exhaustion, the dark haired man slowly turning his attention back toward him. "Please go after Ruby and make sure she doesn't kill anyone."

With a small nod the man silently left the room, closing the door behind him.

 _Now that they are gone there is just one more thing to take care of, It has been over a month since we heard from our informant in Vale, I need to send someone out to go meet him._

Just at the moment in walked a commander of one of the many divisions that made up the resistance brandishing more folders.

Ironwood had to suppress the annoyed sigh he felt coming.

"Sir I have this mornings training reports," Placing the reports in the table he offered a quick salute and began to leave.

"Commander." The soldier was quick to stop and turn on his heels.

"Yes sir?" the sharp disciplined response came.

"I need one of your troops, do you have anyone that you can spare for a mission to Vale?"

The soldier thought for a moment before nodding his head. "Yes sir, I have someone that can be prepared to leave immediately."

"Perfect send him down. Tell them to pack for a three day trip at least. Just in case."

"Will do sir." With a final salute the soldier marched out of the room.

Ironwood rubbed his temples with his metal hand the cold steel causing a shiver to run down his spine. "It is gonna be a long next few weeks."

* * *

 **Alright well there is the next chapter. I was debating about how Ruby would react to hearing news of the time machine, because of how cynical and dark she is supposed to be, giving her a sense of hope seemed weird at first. I hope giving her a sense of hope isnt too out of character. Even dark heartless people would get a small sense of hope when you realise you have a chance to get loved ones back right?**

 **Anyway we have some more conflict with Weiss woo. We should be getting to the meat of the story (The past) soon, I am just still getting a few things out of the way.**

 **Next chapter we get an introduction to some characters that have not yet appeared, and probably a switch back to a more POV style of writing.**

 **Please leave a review and let me know what yall think :D**

 **Till next time**

 **Redwing.**


	5. Prologue 5

_**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any characters depicted.**_

 _ **This is a slight AU story. Events will not fully match up with canon.**_

 _ **Cover Art: Official commissioned art for this story done by the amazing Noxypep**_

* * *

Ren blew into his cupped hands, and rubbed them together, trying to get his warm breath to give feeling back to his hands as he walked through the snow covered forest of Patch. ' _Of course she decided to go out when the snow started to pick up'_ Ren looked around at the snow starting to pile up on the trees rather quickly. He noticed the trail of footprints that stretched out far past his vision was starting to get covered. Thankfully he didn't exactly need the trail he had been following for the past hour and a half. He already knew exactly where Ruby had run off to.

' _You know, some of us don't have speed semblances that get us across the island super-fast Ruby, Some of us have to actually walk through the freezing cold.'_ A shiver ran up his spine. Ren never was a fan of the cold, he always preferred it to be warm and sunny outside. Much better than wading through ankle deep snow, the cold going through his clothes easily.

It didn't help that he was alone, no one there to try and help keep his mind off the cold with conversation. All he had was his own thoughts, the echoing sound of the crunching snow beneath his boots, and his own visible breath, which only served to remind him how cold it was. ' _Thankfully she is just at the top of this hill.'_

Speeding up slightly Ren made his way through a thick patch of trees, the sound of snow crunching beneath his feet dying down the closer he got till his walking was near silent.

As he passed the last barren tree, a small amount of snow fell off a branch, landing on the shoulder of his jacket, which he was quick to brush off. He came into a small clearing that lead to the ledge of a steep cliff. Running along the edge of the cliff side was a series of seven stone structures. Each an equal distance apart. Ren remembered the first time he had seen this cliff years ago. It used to be a single gravestone for Ruby's mother. Now six more joined it. The rest of their family and close friends had slowly been given gravestones along the cliff as the years had gone on.

Ren could see Ruby standing in front of the ornate stone in the center of all the others. Her hair a mix of its normal color and white from the amount of snow tangled in the locks of her hair. ' _Looks like she hasn't moved since she got here.'_

Ren turned his attention to the stone on the far left. Silently walking over he knelt down in front of the stone, a sad smile on his face. ' _It has been awhile since my last visit, sorry I didn't bring any flowers this time'_ Ren ran his fingers over the name and sygiel engraved into the stone.

 _Nora Valkyrie_

' _I really miss you Nora,"_ It was the way she was always happy that me missed the most. The way she was always bringing everyone up from their lowest downs. Even if it was inappropriate sometimes. He chuckled to himself slightly thinking about all the crazy things Nora would have to say about the events she has missed over the years she has been gone.

Ren was happy that Ruby came out here at least once a week, it was one of the main reasons he so quickly decided to look over Ruby whenever she left the base after Ironwood assigned her to have a watcher. Plus already being her teammate just made things easier.

Her coming out here gave him all the more reasons to pay Nora a visit.

Suddenly Ren didn't feel so cold anymore. Thinking about Nora brought him a warmth that he had only ever felt when he was around her. ' _I always end up thinking about ways that I could have done something more to save you, but I can almost never come up with any.'_ The thought of Ironwood's meeting came back to him. ' _Although now it seems like I might finally have an answer, even if it does sound crazy, I have to give it a chance. If it means seeing you again it will all be worth it.'_ His gaze shifted over to the brunette still standing stock still in the same spot. ' _I imagine Ruby feels more strongly about this than I do. She definitely needs it more that is for sure.'_

A loud, slow exhale of breath to his right brought him out of his thoughts. "How long have you been here Ren?"

Standing up he brushed the snow on his knees away, and stole a final glance at the gravestone in front of him. ' _I'll come back soon for a more proper visit, I promise to bring flowers next time.'_

"Not very long, maybe five or so minutes _."_ He wasn't sure exactly how long he had been kneeling next to Nora's grave truth be told. Whenever he came to spend time with her he always lost tracks of how much time had passed.

"I didn't hear you this time, you use your semblance? Or did you just avoid the dreaded branch this time?"

The question hung in the air for a few seconds before Ren answered. "I guess you'll never know."

A sharp exhale of breath was heard from still woman next to him, her visible breath wafting through the air at a steady pace. "Fair enough.' Her voice held a somber tone that he began to notice.

For a few moments neither of them spoke, Ren focused at looking at the other gravestones. Next to Nora's was Pyrrha's gravestone, dead flowers from Jaune's last visit still visible from from under the snow lying next to it. Then was Yang's grave, followed by the one Ruby was staring at, the name Blake Belladonna etched into the center of the stone. The final three stones on the other side of Ruby were out of Ren's view, but he knew that they belonged to the rest of Ruby's family Summer, Qrow, and Taiyang.

"Why did you jump so quickly to violence with Weiss back there?" he sighed when the questions was only met with silence for several seconds.

"She acts like she understands me, and that she is a better person than me because she hasn't done the things I have done. Her high and mighty act pisses me off, it has ever since we met at beacon, especially when she is right and she knows it. Her bringing up Blake when she has no right to just pushed me over the edge." She replied suddenly.

"Ruby you can't keep blaming Weiss for Blake's death, it isn't going to make you feel better, you need to move on, especially since you know as well as I do that Blake…" Ruby held up a hand motioning for him to stop.

"Please Ren spare me."

After being meet with only more silence Ren began to walk over towards the short woman. "Look Ruby…"

"She really would be disgusted by me." The sudden statement was a surprise to Ren. Ruby's eyes looked across all the graves in front of her. "They all would be I am sure, the things I have done, the blood I have spilt would no doubt be a disappointment to them," she looked at him for the first time since he got here. "But I don't regret any of it. I think that is the part they would hate the most…"

"You know that you can change that right?"

Once again he was met with silence. Ruby brushed the snow out of her hair before walking close to Blake's grave, she knelt down in front of it and began whispering something that Ren couldn't quite hear before standing up and walking back toward the treeline.

"Come on let go, we have to get ready for our mission tomorrow." she beckoned him with her arm as she walked away.

Ren watched her walk through the snow with ease as she made her way toward the treeline. "What will you do if Adam really is there?"

Ruby paused mid stride and looked back at him, "Now that is a silly question Ren…" A sadistic smile coming to her face "I am gonna make sure he sufferers, and then I am gonna end his wretched life…Painfully."

"Do you think that will really help you get over Blake's death?"

Ruby seemed to ponder the question for a bit. "No probably not, but it sure as hell will make me feel a lot better knowing that I was able to sink Crescent Rose deep into his cold black heart, and I got to watch the blood run down my blade as the last flickers of his pitiful life leave his eyes." With that she pulled her hood up and walked off into the trees. ' _And anyone who tries to stop me will wish I simply killed them'_ "Now let's get going."

Ren turned to the grave that Ruby had just left, turning back to watch as Ruby walked off. "She has changed so much since your death. She rarely smiles anymore, she is cold and distant to new people, and she never gets involved in any crazy antics like she used to. The girl she used to be has been replaced by someone who only seems to find pleasure on the battlefield. Although today when we learned about this crazy time travel plan I saw something in her I haven't seen in a long time. I'm sure that you are the cause of it, the thought of seeing you again must be giving her some hope." He once again blew into his hands as the cold finally started to bother him again. Putting his hands in his pockets he began to walk toward the tree line after Ruby. "Let's hope that if we do go back that you can help her, cause I have a feeling you are the only one who has any chance to fill the void in her heart Blake."

As he walked off he shouted out to the woman in front of him, "Try and not get into anymore fights with Weiss on this mission."

He barely heard the "No promises," she replied with.

* * *

Weiss stared at the white ceiling of the infirmary room she was in, after Jaune had brought her here a doctor immediately took a quick look at her and said she would be fine, gave her a tissue for her bloody nose and then walked out.

Now she had been sitting here for ten minutes longer than she needed to, old memories entering her mind.

 _Yang smiled at her, tears streaming down her face, which somehow did not lose its beauty despite it being caked with dried blood and dirt. "Take care of my little sister for me snow angel." she gestured the the unconscious brunette that was being held by Blake behind Weiss._

 _Weiss wanted to argue more than anything, she wanted to pull Yang into the airship with her and not let go, but she knew it wasn't going to happen, Yang was too stubborn to do it, no matter what she did. She nodded her head, tears welling up in here eyes. "I will, I promise."_

 _Yang swiftly pulled her into a passionate kiss. Weiss melted into the kiss, as she got lost in the sweet taste of Yang's lips. A warm feeling washed over her as the world around her vanished, no longer was she sitting in an airship in the middle of a war zone, she was simple there in the arms of the woman she loved. Sadly that moment quickly came to an end as Yang broke the kiss before pushing Weiss further into the airship. As she hopped off the metal floor of the ship and back onto the ground she took one last glance at Weiss a giant grin on her face. "I love you." she then hit the side of the airship, signaling the pilot to take off._

 _Before Weiss could reply the side door to the airship was forcibly slammed shut by the soldier next to her and they were airborne, the soft sound of muffled explosions the only thing Weiss could here. The tears that had been building up finally fell free. "I love you too."_

"Yang." Weiss said, staring at her metal hand opening and closing it.

 _Weiss was breathing heavy, trying to get air back into her lungs, clutching her stumped hand against her chest, trying to apply pressure so the bleeding would stop. Running her now only hand across her face she wiped off a combination of dirt, blood, and sweat._

" _Weiss"_

 _Turning to her right she saw Blake clutching her lower abdomen, blood seeping through the bandages that had quickly been tied around her waist. She turned to Weiss, a serious look on her face._

" _I need you to throw me in there."_

 _Looking over, Weiss saw Ruby fighting Cinder, the intense heat from the fires raging around them offset the cold feeling of the air and snow that surrounded the area that they currently occupied. Behind them she could see Adam had regained consciousness as he grabbed his sword and slowly stalked toward the two fighting individuals._

" _Blake," She huffed, "If I do this you are going to most likely die you know that right? you are in no shape to go in there and fight."_

 _Blake turned and smiled at her, "I know, but this is the only thing I can think of, please do this for me."_

" _Blake you know that I ca…" Blake limped over to her and wrapped her in a tight hug, tears started to flow from Weiss's eyes. "Blake please don't make me do this. We have already lost so many other, we can't lose you as well. Especially not Ruby."_

" _Weiss please, I need you to do this, you know there is no other way. I need to help her."_

 _Weiss thought for a minute, the sounds of the fight getting louder and more intense as time passed, a debating in her head as to what the right choice was. Looking over she saw Jaune and Ren helping each other fight some of Cinder's men, both looking ready to just collapse from exhaustion. Finally after what seemed like an eternity she turned to the raven haired woman next to her._

" _Fine." She tried to keep her voice steady, but failed to keep it from cracking. A sob getting caught in her throat._

 _Blake smiled at her, "Thank you, Weiss."_

 _Weiss said nothing as used the last of her aura to prepare a glyph beneath Blake as she looked towards the fight to make sure her aim was where she needed it to be._

" _Take care of her Weiss." A simple nod was all Weiss could offer Blake as she tried her best to choke back the small sob from escaping her lips._

"Yang, I'm sorry I failed you, I failed both of you." Weiss clenched her right hand tight, the sound of the metal of her fingers and palms scraping together could be heard throughout the small white infirmary room. "I didn't take care of her like I said I would, I just let her go off on her own and become a shadow of herself. I can see it in her eyes, the drive and passion that used to be there is gone, replaced with something much more dangerous and menacing." tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "I don't think we will ever be able to get her back."

"Dont beat yourself up over this again Weiss." a voice interrupted her rant. Looking over, she saw Jaune standing in the doorway of the room, leaning against the frame.

He slowly walked over to her and took a seat next to her on the bed she was currently sitting on.

"There is nothing you really could have done Weiss, Ruby started being a loner after Blake died, I doubt she would have let you close again, hell the only reason Ren got so 'close' is probably because he is the only person she can relate to, they both have lost everything." He rested his hand on her shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"We lost the same people as well, it isn't like she is alone in that." Weiss anger slowly rising to the surface. "Yet look at the rest of us, we are not all driven by the same burning desire for revenge, it is like a fire that will slowly burn her until she is nothing but the simple ashen remains of who she once was."

"No, but I can understand where she is coming from, if only a little." Jaune voice lowered, becoming suddenly more serious.

"What?"

Jaune turned to look at her, an emotion she couldn't identify in his eyes. "I get where she is coming from, I want nothing more than to see Cinder's head get lopped off by my own sword for what she's done to the world, to our friends, to Pyrrha." The last part he said through gritted teeth. "Yet there is something always holding me back from just going after my desire for revenge."

"And what is that."

"I still have my family." Jaune reached into his pocket and fished out a folded piece of paper. He unfolded it before handing it to her, what she got was a picture of Jaune surrounded by eight women and one other man. All of them were posed in the Beacon courtyard, many other students behind them jumping and dancing in celebration of their recent graduation. "Whenever I think about trying to just go get revenge I see Ruby and see the road it would take me down, and then I think of how disappointed my family would be, and it makes me just sit back and think."

Jaune grabbed the picture back from Weiss and put it back in his pocket. "Ruby doesn't worry about such things, because to her, there is no one left to disappoint, and she stopped caring if she disappointed us a long time ago. It is easy to see why she is the way she is now."

Weiss sat and thought about what Jaune said, "You are right, yet I can't help thinking that sometimes, maybe had I not listened to Blake back then she wouldn't have had to died. Hell if I had done more back when it was Yang then maybe she would also still..." Her eyes wandering to the floor.

Once again she felt a squeeze on her shoulder. "You know as well as I do that if you hadn't done what Blake asked you to Ruby would have been the one to die, Blake wanted to help the person she loved most. No matter what Ruby says, don't go blaming yourself." He removed his hand from her shoulder and leaned back on the bed. "We both know that Yang would have forced you onto the airship had she needed to. She chose to stay behind in Beacon to try and hold off Cinder's forces so we could get away, and you should know better than anyone that once she put her mind to something there was no stopping her."

Weiss let out a hefty sigh. "Once again you are right, but that doesn't make it hurt less to think about."

"I know how you feel, for the longest time I blamed myself for Pyrrha's death, and I felt so much anger at myself for the longest time. Thinking there was something more that I could have done."

A silence formed between them before Weiss decided to speak up again. "I just wish her and I could go back to being friends, but there is such animosity between us that I don't think things will ever go back to normal, especially with how different we are now, we can't see eye to eye on anything." She sighed as she hopped off the bed and onto the floor, Jaune mirroring her movements.

Jaune patted her on the back "Come on Weiss I'm sure it will work out in the end you just have to keep working at it, now let's go get something to eat and start packing, we don't wanna get caught up with last minute packing."

"You aren't gonna be trying to sing and play that guitar while we pack again are you?" Weiss said with a smile.

A blush formed on the tall man's cheeks as he scratched the back of his head. "No, what would ever make you think that?" A nervous laugh came from him.

she walked past Jaune and out of the door, whispering as she passed by him. "The walls are not as soundproof as you think, I can hear you practicing."

Weiss could hear him stammer nervously to try and find words as she walked out of the infirmary and made her way towards their room.

"Hey I have gotten a lot better since our days at Beacon right Weiss? Weiss?"

Weiss chuckled to herself ' _Somethings never do change'_

* * *

"What do you mean you still haven't found her? It has been over a year."

Cinder heard a sigh from the green haired woman behind her as the black clad, red haired man in front of them talked. Cinder held up her hand to signal Emerald to not make another sound and then gestured to the open chair next to a man with silver hair, wearing black and grey, who currently had his feet propped up on the large table in front of them, his hands resting behind his head, and his eyes closed as he took a nap.

Emerald ran her hand along Cinder's shoulders as she made her way next to Mercury. Who she quickly elbowed in the ribs as she sat down. Mercury bolted upright in the chair, his legs flying off the table as he woke up. "Hey, what was the for?"

"Pay attention." she scolded him.

" _Pshh,_ Whatever bitch." he whispered.

"What was that!?" Emerald yelled at him

Cinder quickly tuned out the argument that started between the two, hoping to avoid the headache it would surely bring. looking back she focused on the Faunus sitting opposite of her at the table. An annoyed look on his face. "To answer your question Adam no we haven't, she and her little resistance have done a surprisingly good job of hiding their whereabouts this time. Our scouts have not been able to find anything, nor have our informants heard anything about their movements in quite sometime."

"I want that little silver eyed bitch found." Adam growled, malic laced in his voice.

Cinder was about to respond when she was cut off by Mercury. "Don't you have more important things to do that trying to find her like, I don't know, being a leader to your people?"

Cinder glared at Mercury who simply shrugged at her before throwing his hands behind his head and once again kicking his feet up on the table.

"Killing that woman is a top priority of mine, as a leader of the Faunus Kingdom I have made it my mission to protect my people, and she is a threat." Cinder could hear the composure in his voice slowly slipping.

"What, a girl slaughters a few villages and your top priority is to personally take her down, and not just better protect your territory? Seems like a bad leadership decision to me." Adam swiftly stood up knocking his chair over.

"Enough, both of you." Cinder spoke sharply, cutting off either of them from taking action. "Mercury stop antagonizing him," Mercury simply held up his hands above his head. "And you, calm down." she pointed to Adam who simply took his hands off his sword but remained standing. "Now we are continuing to gather information, and you will be informed when we find out anything, the minute they make a move I am postivie that we will hear about it, our informant network runs deep, but for now I need you to keep following my instructions to keep everything running smoothly, am I understood?"

The bull faunus opened his mouth but quickly shut it as he saw Cinder's eyes flair a brightly, like a fire had been light within them. A small warning to him that keeping the argument going would only serve to anger her.

Adam simply scoffed at her, and turned his back as he made his way to the door. Slamming it as he exited it. Cinder sighed as she leaned back in her chair slightly, only having to sit up again as a series of rasps sounded at the door and a red haired man with a white suit and a entered the room, tapping his cane randomly along the floor as he did.

"You know I never understood why you keep than animal around anymore, he has such a short fuse. It doesn't really seem worth putting up with all of his bullshit ya know." Roman stated as he slipped into the chair that Adam had just left. Pulling out a cigar he placed it in his mouth as he reached into his pocket to fish out his lighter. "So what is it you called me here for today?"

"Straight to the point Roman? How uncharacteristic of you." Cinder jested. Roman simply shrugged at her as he lit his cigar, taking a drag before blowing out the smoke, and once again letting it rest in his mouth. She opened her mouth to speak again only to be stopped by Roman as he held up a hand. Slowly he took another drag of his cigar, sighing as the smoke escaped his lips.

"Well you know me, busy trying to lie, cheat, and steal, so I'd like to make haste as to not lose time. The sad and miserable masses of society won't go picking their own pockets you know?"

Cinder simply smiled at his antics "That is fine, what I need from you is simple. Meet up with our major informant in Vale and see if he has gotten any information on the resistance, that shouldn't take up to much of your precious time i'm sure."

Roman leaned back in his chair, breathing in more smoke before smiling as he realized the breath trapped in his lungs. "Shouldn't be an issue, I do always love an excuse to visit the city, especially if it gets me out of this cold Atlas winter, plus there are plenty of suckers just waiting to be robbed. Ill head out immediately." With that he got up and walked back out the door, signaling to someone leaning against the wall. Cinder could hear him talking. "Let's go, we have a job to do. Oh boy this is gonna be so much fun." she could see a head of pink and brown hair start walking behind the man as the door closed.

Standing up she looked over at her two subordinates that had been through so much with her. "You both are dismissed for the day, relax for a bit." Mercury quickly hopped from the table and waltzed out the door.

"See ya." waving his hand at them as he walked off.

"I'll see you later Cinder." Emerald winked at her as she also slipped out of the door.

Cinder leaned back into her chair and looked up at the dark ceiling of the room. ' _I might not know where you all are now, but this time when I find you, I will be sure to fully wipe you out.'_ Cinder thought a menacing smile on her face. ' _I'll see you soon, Ruby Rose, and Jaune Arc."_

* * *

 **Well here is the next chapter, slightly longer than the rest of them. Also with hopefully less grammar errors than last chapter. I made sure to double check this one, last chapter I really dropped the ball on the proof read, so hopefully I got any really bad errors this time.**

 **I hope you all are enjoying the story so far, and I just wanna let everyone know that we don't have to many more chapters (Prologues) until the time travel actually comes into play, and the story really gets rolling. I planned on this being a long story so I wanted to establish a few things before jumping into the time travel, and well things just sorta kept getting added onto that. But I will happen soon I promise.**

 **I hope I did some of the villains well because this was my first time writing any of them so I am a little nervous about how I did with them. We will be seeing a more of them in the next chapter.**

 **Anyway please leave a review and let me know what yall thought of this chapter, and Ill see you next update.**

 **~Redwing~**


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